At this point, my efforts to taboo agenty thinking have been successful enough that I misinterpreted the first two paragraphs of this post. I thought it was about the distinction between people I model as full game-theoretic agents (I account for them accounting for my actions) versus people who will execute a fixed script without any reflective reasoning. To me, that’s the difference between PCs and NPCs.
This is exactly the kind of other-people-thinking-differently-than-I-do interestingness that caused me to write this post!
The thing that was most interesting to me, on reflection, is that I do get angry less since I’ve started modelling most people “mechanically”. It’s jus that my brain doesn’t automatically extend that to people whom I respect a lot for whatever reason. For them, I will get angry. Which isn’t helpful, but it is informative. I think it might just show that I’m more surprised when people who I think of as PCs let me down, and that when I get angry, it’s because I was relying on them and hadn’t made fallback plans, so the anger is more just my anxiety about my plans no longer working.
I do get angry less since I’ve started modelling most people “mechanically”. It’s jus that my brain doesn’t automatically extend that to people whom I respect a lot for whatever reason.
It seems that once you assign specific people to the NPC category you think of them as belonging to a lesser, inferior kind. That’s why you get less angry at them and that’s why those you respect don’t get assigned there.
This is exactly the kind of other-people-thinking-differently-than-I-do interestingness that caused me to write this post!
The thing that was most interesting to me, on reflection, is that I do get angry less since I’ve started modelling most people “mechanically”. It’s jus that my brain doesn’t automatically extend that to people whom I respect a lot for whatever reason. For them, I will get angry. Which isn’t helpful, but it is informative. I think it might just show that I’m more surprised when people who I think of as PCs let me down, and that when I get angry, it’s because I was relying on them and hadn’t made fallback plans, so the anger is more just my anxiety about my plans no longer working.
It seems that once you assign specific people to the NPC category you think of them as belonging to a lesser, inferior kind. That’s why you get less angry at them and that’s why those you respect don’t get assigned there.